As early as April last year, the Ghana Cement Association filed a petition with the Ministry of Trade, the Customs Advisory Committee, the Customs Affairs Committee of the Tax Administration and the Election Committee of the Finance, Industry and Trade Parliament on the influx of bagged cement from abroad and its negative impact on the domestic economy and cement manufacturing industry.
The petition issued by the Association, signed by President Rev. Dr. George Dawson, stated that Ghana did not need to import bagged cement because its cement manufacturers had sufficient capacity to meet employment, tax, value-added, use local raw materials, meet quality standards and meet the growing demand for cement in the country. Imported cement does not produce any added value.
According to the statement, domestic cement producers include Ghacem Limited, Diamond Cement Ghana, Savanna Diamond Cement and Western Diamond Cement, with a total annual cement production capacity of 7.4 million tons. At present, Ghana's domestic demand for cement is only 5 million tons, and the excess capacity is more than 2 million tons. Imported bagged cement from China, despite repeated pleas that domestic producers have the capacity to meet domestic demand, has a strong competitive advantage, which poses a challenge and threat to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and industrial associations in Ghana to promote domestic production and create thousands of jobs in the industry. In addition, the association has unfortunately found that the cost and freight of imported bagged cement are pitifully low. The cost and freight of imported bagged cement from China are even lower than US $25-30 per ton. For manufacturers with rich experience in international cement trade, these figures are obviously absurd, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Tax Bureau, the Tariff Advisory Committee and other departments have begun to pay attention to them.
Up to now, Ghana has imported 500,000 tons of bagged cement. According to the Ghana Cement Association, the use of these cement with freight plus cost of 25-30 US dollars per ton has caused at least 50 million Ghana cedi (about 13 million US dollars) losses to the domestic cement industry. The attitude of Ghana Cement Association is that the actual cost and freight value of imported bagged cement from China must not be less than US $80/ton.
The petition statement also said that the domestic cement industry needed to be protected to sustain the economy. According to the association, the cement industry contributes more than 600 million Ghanaian cedis annually to Ghana's tariffs and taxes.
The Ghana Cement Association has also initiated anti-dumping and countervailing duties.
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